Biodiesel

Bunge is one of the largest biodiesel suppliers for the key fuel producers on the Romanian market.

Biodiesel utilization is growing both in Europe and Romania. Each year, Romania produces sustainable rapeseeds and consumes more than 200.000 tons of biodiesel, for which rapeseed oil is the main material.

Biodiesel production is a two-step process which begins with refining, where crude oil is processed resulting in semi-refined oil and soapstock – a mix of vegetable fats – as a by-product, which is sold to our customers, who then process it to obtain fatty acids.

This process is essential as the quality of the oil directly influences the quality of the biodiesel. In the next step, the semi-refined oil reacts with methanol, yielding biodiesel and glycerine as a by-product.

In Romania, biodiesel is produced at the Lehliu Gara plant – the biggest greenfield project in 2007.